Alone

 Alone

A dramatic scene for two women

By: Holland Stull 

A screen separates two girls. One sits at a desk. One has her back turned to the audience at the start of the piece. 

She turns around. Kate is panicked. She freaks out for a moment. She paces back and forth. On the other side of the screen, Jacey scrolls on a computer. She has a headset on. She takes a call on her headset, she pantomimes the call. Eventually she hangs up. Kate sits down and runs her hands through her hair. She breaks down for a moment before standing up and grabbing her phone from a nearby table. All of this happens simultaneously. She contemplates for a moment before dialing a number. Jacey gets the call and answers the phone. 

(TAKE YOUR TIME ON THIS BEGINNING PART. WE REALLY WANT TO SEE KATES PANIC AND INTENSITY HERE. A LARGE INTERNAL STRUGGLE IS HAPPENING.)

Jacey: 911. What’s your emergency?

Kate: …

Jacey: Hello?

Kate: …

Jacey: Is anyone there?

Kate: …

Jacey: This is an emergency line, so if this isn’t an emergency, I’m going to have to hang up.

Kate: I’m sorry. 

Jacey: Hello? Did somebody say something?

Kate: I’m sorry. 

Jacey: You’re sorry? 

Kate: I don’t know what to do. 

Jacey: Okay. Well, I can help you figure it out. Can you tell me your name?

Kate: Kate.

Jacey: Great. Okay Kate. What happened? Can you tell me what happened? 

Kate: It was just so loud. He was just so loud. 

Jacey: He? Whose He?

Kate: Noah. 

Jacey: Noah. And whose Noah. 

Kate: My fiance. 

Jacey: Okay. Great. So Noah was loud. What happened after that Kate?

Kate: He just kept yelling. He’s always yelling. He was always yelling. 

Jacey: What was he yelling about Kate?

Kate: About dinner. He was yelling about our dinner. Because I couldn’t get our dinner together in time. 

Jacey: What happened after that Kate. 

Kate: I started to yell. I was yelling too. 

Jacey: What happened Kate?

Kate: I can’t do it anymore. I can’t. I couldn’t and I can’t. I can’t. I used to be good. I had a good job. I lived with my mom. I can’t do it anymore. 

Jacey: It’s okay Kate. Can you take a deep breath with me please? In. And out. That’s good Kate. It’s okay. Can you give me your address Kate? So I can send someone to help you?

Kate: No. No. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. 

Jacey: What didn’t you mean to do Kate?

Kate: I didn’t mean to kill him. 

Jacey pauses for a second in a tiny bit of shock. 

Jacey: Noah? You didn’t mean to kill Noah Kate?

Kate: I didn’t mean to. He was yelling and he grabbed my shoulder and I didn’t want him to again. To take me again. To make me again. He was always yelling. 

Jacey: Its okay Kate. 

Kate: I’m a smart girl. I know what to look for. My dad was a dick. He hit my mom. I thought I would know if it happened to me. But I didn’t even realize what he was doing. I thought he loved me. 

Jacey: Can you tell me your address Kate? So that we can get him some help?

Kate: I hope the bastard dies. I hope he bleeds to death on my kitchen floor. 

Jacey: I need your address Kate, so that I can get someone there to help you. 

Kate: He didn’t let me go to see my mom. She called me and asked me to come see her. And  he wouldn’t let me and now I can’t ever see her again.

Jacey: Kate. Can you listen to me for a second? It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. I can help you if you let me help you. Can you please let me help you?

Kate: She’s gone now. And I killed him. He was all I had left. I don’t have anyone else now. He was it. And I just killed him. 

Jacey: Kate, you’re going to be okay. I can help you if you let me. Can you tell me exactly what happened? Is he breathing?

Kate: He grabbed me by the shoulder and was pulling me to our bedroom and I was fighting him and he grabbed my hair and he threw me on the bed and grabbed my neck in his hand. And I realized I had the knife in my hand to cut the chicken, and I stabbed him in the side. And he was surprised and he stood up, and I took the knife out and stabbed him again, and then again. I don’t know if he’s breathing. I hope he’s not. I couldn’t get away from him. But now I’m all alone.

Jacey: This isn’t your fault Kate. I can help you. Please can you tell me where you live? 

Kate: I can’t do it anymore. This isn’t worth it anymore. I can’t go to jail. I don’t have anything here. I wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t going to. Before this happened I decided I wasn’t going to. 

Jacey: Kate, listen to me please. There are people out there who are worried about you right now. You may not have talked to them in a while. Or seen them in a while. But they’re worried about you, and there are people out there who can help you. You’re not going to go to jail, and you are going to be okay. 

(beat) 

Jacey: Kate?! Kate?

Kate: I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I’m not going to. 

Jacey: Kate! (beat) I know what it’s like to lose somebody in your situation and wish you could’ve done something to help them or be there for them. And there is so much guilt and question about what you could have done. And if I would have called her and talked to her and told her that I missed her. Or picked her up and forced her to leave, she wouldn’t have felt so stuck and like she had no way out. If I would still have a sister.

(beat)

There are people who want to help you Kate. And are going to be there for you. Can you please give me your address? Will you let me help you?

(beat, beat)

Jacey: Kate? Kate? Are you there?!

Kate: 3042 W Barkers St. 

Jacey sits down and types it into her computer. 

(beat)

Kate: Please don’t hang up. 

Jacey: I’m not going to. 

Kate: Your sister killed herself?

Jacey: Yeah. She married a guy that was pretty awful. And she could never get out. 

Kate: It didn’t have anything to do with you. You couldn’t have done anything to help her. 

Jacey: I should have seen it. I should have seen what was happening. Taken her I love you text as the sign. I should have helped her. 

Kate: You could have done everything and it may have never been enough. The point is for you to feel terribly lonely no matter what. 

Jacey: I don’t know about that Kate. 

Kate: Maybe. But maybe not. At some point it’s just too much. It doesn’t matter the people who love you. 

Jacey: The police are 2 minutes out Kate. 

(beat)

Kate: I deserve to go to jail. I killed him. I wanted him to die. 

Jacey: You killed him in self defense Kate. 

Kate: I would have killed him just because. 

(beat)

Jacey: Did you have any other way out?

Kate: Not that I could see.

Jacey: Then maybe it doesn’t matter. 

Kate: Will they be here soon?

Jacey: Yes. They’re close. 

Kate: Thank you. 

Kate hangs up the phone.

Jacey: Kate? Kate? 

Jacey looks at the computer. Kate puts the phone on the table and grabs the knife off of it. She turns her back to the audience. 

Jacey: Kate!??

End Scene